To coincide with the exhibition Botech Compositions: New Work by Macoto Murayama, visual artist Rob Kesseler and metalwork artist Junko Mori are giving a talk at Metal Edge Hill Station about the influence of botany on their artistic practice. There will be the opportunity to hear about their different processes, both sharing an interest in botanical forms and the mechanics of each others chosen mediums. As the summertime season draws to a close the audience will explore how these fascinating artists have manipulated the flowers and plants that surround us to create stunning artworks and images.

Rob Kesseler is a visual artist and Chair of Arts, Design & Science at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London. A previous NESTA Fellow at Kew and Research Fellow at the Gulbenkian Science Institute, Portugal, during the past fourteen years he has collaborated with botanical scientists and molecular biologists in an exploration of the living world at a microscopic level. At the heart of new directions in Art & Science his powerful images have reached a global audience and have been translated into a wide range of contexts and media, ceramics, glass and textiles, video, and photography.

Junko Mori is a Japanese metalworker. She graduated in from Musashino Art University in Tokyo in 1997 with her first BA in three-dimensional design. Mori then worked as a welder in a factory for one year. From 1998 to 2000, she studied silversmithing and metalwork at Camberwell College of Arts in London. Mori then spent two years as artist-in-residence at Liverpool Hope University. The assembling of forged and cast metal is the key to Junko Mori’s work, whether mild steel or almost pure silver. Her observations of tree and plant matter are the driving force behind many of her sculptures which vary in scale from small objects in precious metal through to fairly massive welded steel works of art.

There will also be the chance to see Macoto Murayama’s high-definition animated sequence of flora and fauna currently on display in Edge Hill’s Engine Room. The artwork was created using 3D software and drawings of botanical specimens collected while he was in residence at Metal’s Southend-on-Sea space, Chalkwell Hall. The work explored during this event exemplifies how botanical art is being pushed forward by advances in technology and entering into new forms, outside of the traditional.

Metal thanks The Japan Foundation, Arts Council England, Liverpool City Council and Frantic Gallery for their kind support in helping us to realise this project.

Platform one, Edge Hill Station, Tunnel Road , Liverpool, L7 6ND

To view the exhibition outside of advertised event days please call– 0151 7072277

Full details of the programme are available on Metal’s website: www.metalculture.com